Desert Glow
by Ryth76
Summary: Instead of dying, Rin finds herself nearly twenty years in the future. Unable to handle the changes in her home village, she turns to Sunagakure and the first person she met: the Godaime Kazekage. GaaRin. AU. Crack ship. TO BE REWRITTEN.


**A/N: I was stuck on SotB, so I decided to challenge myself to write a fanfic romance 'novel' to try to stem my writing juices. I think writing one-shots are fine and all... but they aren't good exercise for writing long fics. **

**Warning: This contains the CRACK pairing Gaara x Rin, and possibly will have a lemon or lime in the future. **

**When this story starts, Gaara is 22 and Rin is 18.**

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**Desert Glow**

**Chapter One**

The first thing that alerted her that she was still alive was the rumble of frigid water in her ears. Light shimmered above the sinking woman. Mind still hazy from the blow, she kicked with all her might. Her hand clawed at the clay bank as she heaved her chilled body to dry land, coughing up water. Her breath came ragged from burning lungs.

Shivering, she stripped as fast as she could with numb fingers. If she couldn't get warm soon, her survival chances were slim. Rubbing her arms vigorously, she looked around for a safer haven. A line of trees darkened the horizon. Gathering her soggy clothes in a hand, she stumbled toward them. She hunched over and retched, reeling.

The half-drowned girl rubbed her fingers to spread feeling into them. They tingled as blood started to flow through them. She picked up scraps of wood for a fire, vision blurring. Beginning to feel unnaturally warm, she searched her clothes for a combustible ember. She grunted in relief as her hand found it. She bit it and spat it on the wood. Fire crackled like music to her ears. Exhausted and unable to remember what she was supposed to do next, she curled up close to the fire, drifting in and out of unconsciousness.

The sun was ready to set when she came to. The fire had died down into a glowing pile of charcoal. She placed a hand on her clothes and muttered a curse under her ragged breath. She had failed to leave them out to dry. They were sopping wet. She had to make her way back to Konoha as fast as she could. For all she knew, she was trapped in enemy territory. She threw more wood on the fire and stiffly placed her clothes around it.

She crept down to the stream for a drink to soothe her sore and parched throat. She skid down the steep bank. A gasp alerted her to another person's presence. She froze as she crouched down. A strange man in his twenties stared at her in shock from where he stood holding a long red coat in his arms. "I'm sorry! I didn't realize you were here!" He spoke with a strong Wind Country accent. He jerked his head away, blocking the view with a hand. His face was flushed as red as his hair.

Inside, the girl thought as she quickly covered herself with her arms, _A ninja? _Normally, the fact that she hadn't sensed him would've been enough proof, but she wasn't fully recovered from the ordeal of almost drowning and freezing to death. She lifted her kunai to her chest in striking pose. If he was a Sand-nin, then she had to be in the River Country. It didn't seem he realized she was a sworn enemy yet, so she was safe.

The embarrassed young man handed the coat over, not looking at her. "Cover yourself."

She snatched the coat from his hand and wrapped it around her after checking for powder streaks and paper bombs. She zipped it shut. The young man looked back at her. She edged away from him, warily.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you," the dark-eyed young man said in a calm, firm voice. "I am Gaara, the Kazekage." She snorted. The Kazekage? She had to admit he looked similar to him, but not enough to convince her of anything. "Your name?"

She observed him cautiously, considering what to do. A test? It was difficult to disguise an accent. Ninjas rarely felt the need. They wore the symbol of their village proudly. The girl was weak and alone with only a kunai on hand. This Gaara could easily kill her on the spot if he knew who she was. Fortunately, she hadn't slacked on her voice lessons and he looked like he would be easy to trick. It would be foolish to turn down an opportunity to gain information from the enemy.

She licked her lips and her voice croaked as she spoke to match Gaara's accent.

"R-Rin… My name is Rin…"

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**A/N: The Kazekage Rin refers to near the end is the Fourth, who hadn't been Kazekage long before her "death". Short chapter, but I'm not going to be aiming for long chapters like I usually do.**

**Lol, I just realized that since the Wind Country is Southwest of the Fire Country, Gaara's accent could be called 'Southern.' I'll have to remember that xD**

**Edit: Originally, I had planned on writing this whole story in 30 days, but I just got my driver's permit (yes, at my old age), so I've been practicing driving everyday for the past few days and my Mom has also added walking daily after a few drives around the apartment complex to our daily schedule. Which means I have been too tired to think, let alone write a story. When I get my driver's license, I'll be more likely to write. For now, RL is a little rigorous.**

**BIG EDIT:** I just found out why one reviewer said the story is just starting but sounds so familiar... There's another story on FF where Rin ends up in the present timeline. Only she falls for Naruto, not Gaara, and how she ends up in the other universe. Now I have little desire to update this story... I might, but honestly finding out there's another fic like it (with over a 1000 reviews, no less!) makes me feel cheap even though I honestly didn't know...


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